CHUCK vs THE REBOOT
by HarlequinOfHate
Summary: To find out the deepest secrets of the Intersect, and save Sarah once and for all, Chuck must put his faith in a mysterious killer. This story takes place directly after the series finale. Do not read if you haven't watched the entire series!


_This is a non-profit fan fiction about a television show (Chuck) that I think is safe to say is very near and dear to all of us. This story takes place directly after the events of the series finale, and I hope this alternate version of events after it ended will help to bring a little bit of a rounded off closure to the series, instead of leaving things up in the air. Please let me know if you enjoy, and I'll try to update it at least once every few days! Thanks for stopping by! :-)_

_NOTE: Because of a handful of nasty responses (some of which were bad enough to be deleted), let me make clear that this is an alternate version of getting Sarah's memories back, and ultimately getting her and Chuck back together, but only after a new adventure for our heroes plays out. While I believe in the show's version she stayed, in this version she does leave for a time, but not because she is cold, or uncaring. The hows and whys will be solidly explained, believe me. If this isn't your kind of thing, then there are no hard feelings, and no worries on either side! Constructive comments are always appreciated, no matter if they're positive or negative! But I have to ask you to please not make genuinely insulting, and offensively derogatory remarks aimed at other people, or their stories, that are based purely on assumption. Thank guys! :-)_

_..._

**CHUCK vs THE REBOOT**

Chuck remained frozen in place, his eyes shut, and his body shaking. He could feel the sand beneath him, and the wind against his face, but the sound of the waves, and the screeching of the gulls had been lost to the beating of his own heart. The kiss had been wonderful. Just as delicate, and intimate as all of theirs had been, but he wasn't sure what that meant. He was afraid to even ask.

"Chuck?" Sarah said softly, sliding her fingers into his, and squeezing them ever so slightly.

"Did it work?" He still didn't dare to look at her, but he at least managed to peek down at their hands. It was the first time he'd really noticed that her wedding band wasn't on her finger. Of course it wasn't, she had already told him that she didn't love him, why would she wear the symbol of that to remind herself? But even though he knew that, and it made sense, it hurt him more than he could admit.

She leaned into him, wrapping her free arm around his neck, and placing her head on his shoulder, "No."

That one word cut through him like a sharpened blade, dropping his stomach so far, and so fast that he thought for a second he might be sick, "Y... yeah. I mean, it was a long shot, right?"

"Right." She agreed as she stared out at the horizon. "I'm sorry, Chuck."

He was silent for a long time, putting his arm around her, and holding her for what he hoped wasn't going to be the last time, "Me too."

When she began to pull away he almost didn't want to let her go, but he knew he couldn't force her to stay with him. "I have a flight leaving soon."

"Don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me where you're going?" He asked quickly, "Or if you're coming back?"

She smiled at him, but in a way that broke his heart instead of giving him hope, "I don't know. Maybe? There's just a lot of things I have to figure out... and being here is making it harder."

As she stood, he stood, intentionally putting himself between her, and the way they'd come in, "Is it something I'm doing wrong? Because I can back off, I can do whatever you need me to do."

"That's just it." She frowned, and looked down at her feet, "You're being so great, and going out of your way to help me, but... no matter how hard I'm trying, I just can't remember you. There's these little moments where I think I might be remembering something, and you get all excited, and when it turns out that it's nothing, I feel guilty, and there's all this pressure to be who I was before. But... I can't be that person, Chuck. I know I'm supposed to be, but I can't."

He understood. It shattered him to the very depths of his soul, but he got it. Sarah had been a completely different person when they'd met five years ago. Every day since she'd walked into that Buy More had evolved her into the woman that eventually became his wife, and all of that was wiped out in a single night. She wouldn't be able to get it all back just because he needed her to. "No, no pressure. I promise I wasn't trying to pressure you."

"I know that." She said, running her hand down his arm, "It's not your fault... it's mine. It's my problem, and that's why I need to deal with it on my own."

He could feel the hot sting of tears trying to creep up into his eyes, "Wait..."

Her lips touched his one more time, only much softer, and hesitant than before. "Goodbye, Chuck."

"Goodbye, Sarah." He choked out after several painful moments, watching her walk away until her silhouette vanished behind the curve of the sand.

...

**3 YEARS LATER**

"Wow, man, this is just sick." Morgan said, his head halfway inside of the refrigerator, "Soy milk? Really? Only old people, and stuffy college chicks drink this garbage."

"I've been doing a lot of running lately, I need the extra protein." Chuck said, pushing the door shut as he came into the kitchen, "What are you doing here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"Big Mike is filling in for me today. I've got a uh... spastic colon." He said with his hand on his stomach.

Chuck smiled, and pulled on his jacket one arm at a time, "Didn't Black Ops III just come out?"

"Oh did it?" Shiftily tugging on his gray tie, Morgan shrugged, "I had no idea. That's cool, I'll have to think about picking that up."

"Mm hmm. Make sure you take food and bathroom breaks this time, I don't want to have to sit with you in the ER again." He grabbed his keys, and spun them around in his hand.

Taking the cue, Morgan shuffled towards the door, but waited for Chuck to let him out before he stepped back outside, "Don't be ridiculous... that's what Alex is here for."

Smirking, he shook his head, "Listen, buddy, I have to go pick up Ellie, Awesome, and Clara at the airport. You think you can hold down the fort here until I get back?"

"No problem. I got this." Morgan stated confidently, "If anyone needs any maintenance stuff done, I'm totally there, man."

"Noooo. No. Remember? We talked about that already." He warned him, "You did enough damage to the Jenkins' plumbing last month."

"I did them a favor. Those towels were hideous." Flinching a little at the glare he was getting, Morgan nodded, "All right, fine. If you don't want to utilize my genius, then whatever."

Chuck gave him a quick goodbye, and a telling look, then made his way down the long walkway to the very nice car that he had parked out on the street. It was a Nissan GT-R, and it hadn't been cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But it wasn't like he couldn't afford it. Even if he hadn't sold the Buy More, the $45 million in cash left over from Volkoff was released from the CIA's investigation approximately a year after it had been frozen in Bale's accounts. Which opened him up to do two things he'd been wanting to.

First, he bought the apartment complex that he lived in. Owning and operating that seemed to make a lot more sense than owning an electronics and appliance store, especially now that his entire business venture based beneath it had kind of fallen apart. The second thing he did was buy the house that he'd promised to Sarah. It still sat dark, and empty in that neighborhood, but it gave him comfort to know that it was there. That they could use it someday if she ever came back. Of course, he knew how sad and pathetic that was. It didn't make him feel better about himself that every year on their wedding anniversary he would stop by, open a bottle of cheap champagne, and drink himself into a drunken stupor either, but he couldn't make himself let go. Even after all of this time.

The drive to the airport was filled with music on his iPod playlist he'd heard so often that it was just background noise at this point. Occasionally he'd tune back in and sing to a part here or there, but mostly he just sat staring out at the road in front of him, thinking about his life, and what Ellie was going to say when she saw him. For as much as he missed his sister since she'd moved to Chicago, the fact that they were only able to come out once a year was kind of a blessing. He'd get to catch up with them, and after telling him all about how wonderful their lives were there, she could tell him how he was wasting his life staying in Burbank, waiting on someone who was never coming back. Using the 'agree to disagree' argument never helped his case either, but it didn't stop him from trying.

He flicked on his right blinker, merging in front of a reluctant Honda Civic that angrily road his tail almost the entire way down the exit ramp simply for having the nerve to want to get off of the freeway. That was driving in California, though. If someone didn't cuss him out, or flip him off, his day felt almost empty. It was a big step down from what used to fill his life with meaning, but he'd bottled up that pity party a year ago. At least outwardly.

The Awesome trio was already out underneath the arrivals sign when he pulled up. He'd barely had enough time to unlock the doors, and open the trunk before Ellie was hugging him so tight that the air could barely make it into his lungs, "I've missed you so much."

"Hey, Chuck!" Devon said, beating him on the back even while he was still trapped in the arms of his sister. "How's it going, bro?"

"Good." Chuck wheezed out, smiling at them both, "How are you guys doing?"

"Great!" Ellie beamed as she scooped up Clara to put her at eye level with them. "Say hi to your Uncle Chuck, honey."

"Hi." She whispered, looking at him like he was the strangest alien she'd ever seen.

He smiled to try to put her at ease, and rubbed her back, "Hey, Clara! Wow, you sure are friggen huge now! Pretty soon you're gonna be taller than your mommy, huh?"

All he got from her was a shy little shrug, and her face buried in Ellie's shoulder. "Sorry. She'll get used to you in an hour or two, it'll be fine."

"It's okay." He said, waving it off, "No problem. I'll just give her some cookies, and she'll get right over that."

"Cookies?!" Clara's head popped right back out, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Sure. Bribe your niece into loving you." She teased, waiting for Devon to finish attaching the large baby seat in the back of his car. There wasn't a huge amount of room back there, but somehow he was making it work. "I thought we made the whole c-o-o-k-i-e thing clear last time we were here."

He reached into his pocket, and produced a Famous Amos bag, "I'm sorry, I'm not a very good speller, what were we making clear?"

He'd only just gotten the thing open when Clara snatched it out of his hands, and greedily, but cutely added, "Thank you!"

Ellie groaned with irritation, but didn't take the bag from her, "Fine, but I'm not cleaning up the crumbs out of your car."

"That's what vacuums are for, sis." Chuck pointed out, loading their bags into the back, "So did you guys want to go out for dinner, or do we want to order a pizza or something?"

"Clara's been kind of cranky the last couple hours." Devon said as he came around the side, binking her nose with his index finger, "It's probably a safer bet for all of us if we just go back to your place."

"Sounds good to me." He answered. If they hung out there too much longer, they were going to get yelled at for taking too long in the loading zone, so while they took their sweet time strapping in the baby, and getting themselves adjusted, Chuck drummed his fingers on the roof of the car with a hint of impatience. "Need any help?"

"Nah, we got this." Devon said. He swore he saw him give Clara a high five through the small back window once he was finished.

"So how are the jobs going?" Chuck asked as he climbed behind the wheel, and started up the car again, "Anything new and exciting?"

"Good." Ellie was quick to answer, "Everything's good. How have you been?"

"Fine." He shot just as quickly. "Everything's fine."

She eyed him the way only she could, making him feel like she was burning a hole in the side of his head, "Fine. Really?"

"Can you not give me the death stare while I'm driving?" He whined. "It's very distracting."

"You don't seem fine to me." She muttered while crossing her arms against her chest.

"How can you even tell?" He asked incredulously. "You've been here like five minutes."

He couldn't help but notice that he'd only made the glare worse, and now Devon was pretending he and the baby were in their own little world in the back seat,

"For starters, you're still wearing your wedding ring."

Pursing his lips, he had to admit he hadn't thought that one through. Nor did he think the nagging speech was going to happen so soon into their evening. But he wasn't out of defense moves just yet, "How do you know I didn't just try it on to see if it still fit, and got it stuck?"

"Did you?" She asked him point blank.

"No." The truth kind of came out before he could think about it, which left him without a good second excuse.

Her expression softened, and she put her hand on his arm,

"Chuck, I just want you to be happy."

"Sarah made me happy." He sighed.

She nodded, "Yeah, she did. But she's not here anymore. And you can't spend the rest of your life waiting for her. It's not fair to you."

"It's not her fault she doesn't remember." He knew this conversation was doomed before it ever started, but he couldn't stop himself from saying what he felt, "I can't just throw away everything we had because things got too complicated."

"You didn't, Chuck. She did." Almost as soon as she'd said it, she seemed to regret it, her face pinching with sadness, "I'm sorry, I'm done. I didn't come here to pick a fight with you."

"Thank you." His voice was strained, the twinge of both anger, and tears choking him up. After three years he still was completely and totally in love with his wife. And she _was_ still his wife. She'd never filed for divorce, and he'd never received any indication from her that she'd never want to be with him again. Morgan had said that her not calling in all this time was a clear indicator of that, but he wasn't really an expert on relationships. It was him that had given him that stupid false hope about the kiss in the first place.

"So what kind of pizza are we getting?" Devon asked from the back seat to intentionally change the subject. "Because Clara's going through this phase where she doesn't want to eat anything that had a face."

"You guys can get whatever you want. My treat." Chuck replied with a fake smile. He suddenly wasn't very hungry.

...

John Casey leaned forward over the grungy little motel sink, gliding the straight razor over his chin with the careful precision of a surgeon. In this part of the world he didn't have many luxuries, so it was nice to be able to enjoy a good shave from time to time. He didn't like having a beard anyway. The gray hairs outnumbered the colored ones, which made him feel old. He hated feeling old.

"Once we get the name of their supplier, we'll be able to go home." Gertrude called in from the other room, "Unless you want to take a few extra days for just us."

"No." He said firmly. It'd been almost nine months since he'd seen his daughter. It had already started bothering him at the one month mark, so nine was practically a lifetime. "I promised Alex I'd make it back for dinner on Friday."

"Fair enough." She answered. He had barely noticed that she'd slipped into the room behind him until her hands were down inside of his pants, "How about we just take a few hours today then?"

He wiped off his face with a hot towel, and turned around to face her. "We haven't gotten any real work done in six days."

"Five and a half." She corrected, kissing his smooth chin, "We could make it an even six if you want though."

The phone on the counter beside them vibrated loudly, interrupting something incredibly dirty that he was about to say, "Hold that thought."

"I could hold something else." Her offer made him swallow deeply, but instead of assaulting him, she handed him his phone, and kissed his cheek, "Don't be too long."

He gave a pleased grunt, then flipped open the phone. The number was unknown, but only a select few people knew how to reach him on this cell, "This is Casey."

"Colonel Casey." It was General Beckman. If she was calling, it had to be something serious. She wouldn't call in outside help unless she had to, "We have a situation."

"What is it, General?" He asked, partially shutting the door to the other room. He didn't hide anything from Gertrude, but old habits died hard.

"Last night the CIA's most secure servers had a security breech." She explained, "We're still trying to figure out what information was compromised, but we know one thing for sure."

That was bad. He could see where this was going before she even said it, "What's that?"

"Whoever was responsible is coming for Bartowski."


End file.
